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From Standardization to Formality: Unintended Consequences of Police Standardization Reform of Law Enforcement in China
Get PDFAccording to social construction theory, cases are not objective entities waiting to be discovered or revealed; they cannot exist without case-makers. Construction of a case is a subjective process of choosing, increasing, decreasing, selecting, and reshaping. Therefore, a natural gap exists between the constructed and the real world. This dissertation delves into the gap, not from the existing angle of selectiveness, but from the angle of compliance. The study uses empirical data to try to answer the following question: Since the police standardization reform of law enforcement—at least parts of them—aim at controlling the evidence-collecting process and at improving the quality of dossiers, do investigative officers actually conform to standardization rules, and do dossiers meet standardization requirements? After carefully examining the contents of 16 homicide cases collected from two police departments and interviewing the relevant participants, the study reveals unintended consequences of the standardization reform—expansion of formality. Investigative behaviors have become ceremonial or ritualized, and the outcome of those behaviors (i.e. evidence collected) is like an empty shell. It looks reasonable and ostensibly meets requirements of norms, but has little meaning, if any, and may not fulfill its original purpose. The theoretical analyses of this dissertation reflect the view that participants (i.e. investigative officers, case reviewers, or supervisors) must be embedded into the working environment where they take action for collecting and preserving evidence. Inspired by the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework proposed by Professor Elinor Ostrom, the interpretation of the study’s findings places the organizational structure of the investigative officers and the texture of the collective culture in the center of the stage. Only through the lens of influencing factors, such as conflicting norms and interests of investigative officers, can the true roots of administrative logic over judicial logic in the course of action be seen
Rebutting Binary Sanity: Ohio\u27s Opportunity to Overturn Wilcox and Recognize Diminished Capacity in Mentally Ill Defendants
Get PDFHearing on S.R 9, a Resolution Seeking Appointment of a Study Committee on the Regulation of Virtual-Currency Businesses in Indiana, Hearing Before the Senate Committee on Insurance and Financial Institutions
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Developing a Legal Framework Governing Public University Endowments in Saudi Arabia: Lessons from the American Experience with UMIFA and UPMIFA
Get PDFSaudi universities have recently started building and growing their endowments. Despite the increasing interest in university endowments, there is currently no specific legal framework that governs the area of university endowments in Saudi Arabia. The lack of a specific legal framework obstructs the advancement of university endowments. Therefore, this dissertation delineates the development and characteristics of the prevailing legal framework governing university endowments in the United States. The dissertation focuses on the development of the Uniform Management of Institutional Fund Act and the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Fund Act. The dissertation also uses in depth interviews with professional working in the field of university endowments in the United States. This description of the American case is useful for thinking about how to institute a legal framework in Saudi Arabia
The Recent Unpleasantness: Understanding the Cycles of Constitutional Time
Get PDFIn this Article, I will talk about what I expect is going to happen in the next five to ten years. Unlike eclipses, however, one can’t be entirely sure of the future. Politics is not astronomy, and human affairs do not operate like clockwork. Moreover, we can’t assume that everything is already foreordained: that if people simply sit on their hands and do nothing, the cycles I describe in this lecture will take care of themselves. Quite the contrary. I am telling a story about what happens in the long run, but it is not a deterministic story. The actions of many individuals over time, pursuing their values and interests, but constrained by institutional arrangements, will tend to cycle in intelligible ways. But people have to actually pursue those interests. They have to be motivated to respond to the problems they face. Above all, they can’t allow themselves to be overcome by despair and paralyzed into inaction.
Of course some people do despair today. They fear that we are headed inexorably toward fascism, authoritarianism, and the end of democracy. That is not what I think is going to happen. Nor do I expect that the American public will sit on its hands. I believe that Americans will respond to the misfortunes of our present age, just as they have many times before. And for that reason, although I will mention our current President at various points in my discussion, I will not be delving into great detail about the crazy and often disturbing things that have happened since his election. Instead, I will view him, and the party he leads, as exhibiting the effects of the cycles of constitutional time on political life in America.
My purpose, then, is not to tell people that their democracy will take care of itself without any effort on their part. Rather, it is to offer a bit of hope for people who read the news every day and fear that things are only going to get worse. Hope does not guarantee action, but it makes beneficial action more likely. If people misunderstand our situation, and conclude that American decline is inevitable, they may unwittingly help to make that fate a reality; but if they understand the cycles of constitutional time, they may come to believe that their democracy can be redeemed, and do their part to realize that worthy goal